Research has always been my foundation for writing. I’ve loved history. As a kid, my mom gave us the best gift, a real set of hardcover Encyclopedias. I loved staring at those glossy pages. At the time, the dog section was my favorite. I pulled the “D” Encyclopedia out every night and dreamed about my own perfect dog. At the time it was a Pomeranian. Now, I’m more of a short-haired dog fan.

This month’s IWSG post asks me to think of the weirdest/coolest thing I’ve ever written for a story. In honor of the new release, Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life, I’ll pick old farm equipment. And here’s what I incorporated into my own story “The Wheat Witch,” set in the middle of Kansas in the year 1989.

After interviewing my father about farm life in Kansas, I came up with this list of equipment my main character Ethan had to clean up and use:

International 560 Diesel Tractor. 1963. Pull Combine.

photo credit: Pixabay

Disc Plow (4) and Harrow

Tiller for weeds

Planter

Sprayers

Old Farm Truck with bed (Ford)

A broken down shed.

A scene in my story involves the repair of an old tractor. I relied heavily on YouTube to get the visuals going in my mind.

photo: pixabay

Here’s the Youtube video I watched to get the background on troubleshooting a tractor that isn’t starting up right.

The picture to the right is just for fun. It’s Ethan’s man car, his only prized possession, a 69′ Mustang. My dad told me he and his family were only allowed to buy ford vehicles since the ford dealer went to his family’s church. The church was the pillar of the community and tying into the community was pivotal.

Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life

Today is the day! Thank you to everyone who made this book such an incredible success, from the talented authors, the judges, those folks taking part in the blog tour this month, the IWSG, and Dancing Lemur Press, LLC. Friday I’ll post the list of blog tour stops. 🙂

It is funny what we end up researching. And it’s so easy now with the internet. Can you imagine having to use an old encyclopedia at the library for every detail? Congrats on the book, Erika, to you and all the participating authors 😀

Thank you Diana. I remember studying Faulkner back in college and I think there was some questioning about one of his books taking place in Missouri and it didn’t feel real because he hadn’t actually been there. I can’t remember
The book, but most definitely I am happy the internet is so helpful today with videos 🙂

My dad buys and sells used farm machinery. He could have been a source! Ha ha 🙂 For oddball research, I’m surprised my browser history hasn’t imploded. Some scary stuff, I’ve researched. So, are you in the anthology? Congrats!!!

I am so happy to know I am not the only one M.J. Yes, I spent hours many evenings watching videos and mostly the information just helped paint the image and backgrounds in my mind. I didn’t use a great deal of the info, but I do think it helped me write with more description. Thank you for stopping in today 🙂

I think it’s cool that you researched farm equipment. The story brought me back to my grandfather’s farm and all the old farm equipment there – nothing ever thrown out, but kept for possibly future use or for parts.

Yes they are and they are really
Weird about social rules sometimes too. My grandpa only bought John deer too until something happened with a new combine purchase. I will have to ask my dad why grandpa finally finished his career with a red international 🙂

Oh, how you brought me right back to my childhood when you mentioned encyclopedias. We used to have a set and I would flip a volume open to a random page from time to time and learn and weird and wonderful things.

My mom also gave us a real set of hardcover Encyclopedias, with glossy pages. They were the New Junior encyclopedias with purple covers. I LOVED paging through them. *sigh* That was decades ago…
Thanks for the memories! 🙂